Book By Cadillac Subscription Program Lets You Drive Multiple Models For $1,500 A Month

BY Carscoops Staff | Posted on

Can’t decide between a luxury sedan or sport-ute? Cadillac is here to help with its new Book service. Rather than buying or leasing a specific vehicle, Book by Cadillac offers a subscription to a fleet of top-of-the-line luxury automobile – something like Netflix for cars.

Say, for example, you want a performance sedan (like a CTS-V) during the summer months, but a crossover (like the XT5) for the winter. Book by Cadillac can make that happen. Drive a CT6 sedan most of the time, but want an Escalade for a family ski vacation? No problem.

Just sign up and book (see what they did there?) the car you want on the app, and a white-glove concierge will drop off your new wheels at your home or office (or anywhere you specify) and pick up the one you’re returning.

You won’t have to worry about being stuck with a lower-end vehicle, because the service only supplies Cadillac’s top-level models – the XT5, Escalade, CT6, and V Series performance models – all in Platinum trim. Plus you don’t have to deal with the costs and hassles of maintenance, depreciation, and registration. Cadillac takes care of all of that for you.

Of course all of this comes at a cost: $1,500 per month, to be exact. Consider, by comparison, that after a payment of $9,845 due at signing, even a $88,790 CT6 3.0 Twin-Turbo Platinum costs $966 per month to lease on a 48-month term, for a total of $1,171/month amortized, albeit keep in mind, that’s without any negotiation. But then you’re stuck with the same car for four years, instead of getting to switch it up when you want. Now if Cadillac only had a new XLR (or threw a Corvette into the mix) it might be the perfect option for those with the means.

Cadillac will initially launch the subscription program in the New York metro area, with plans to debut in other markets soon.

For more information on how to join, check out Cadillac’s dedicated page at BOOKByCadillac.

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  • Euphemism for Leasing

    No thanks, I’ll invest the money elsewhere.

  • SgtBeavis

    So it’s basically a glorified, and a bit overpriced, rental car program?

    • fabri99

      I honestly don’t see a difference between this and a rental car program. Perhaps only that you are tied to the same car maker and for a longer time. And it sounds more expensive too.

  • TheBelltower

    I don’t suppose this has anything to do with the classic car club of Manhattan, does it? That’s exactly what they do with their fleet of cars. And they are located right around the corner from Cadillac’s offices

  • Mind Synthetic

    hell, you can buy a 1st gen cts for that much lol

  • SgtBeavis

    Thinking about this a bit more.
    How do they handle insurance? A rental car company charges extra for insurance that covers loss of use. What about your personal auto insurance, you don’t own or lease the car, will they cover you?

    If this program provides for insurance then that $1500 price tag starts to make more sense. We’re quoted $1171 a month for a CT6 lease in the article. Adding insurance to that helps out quite a bit.

    I don’t recall what the service costs are on a CTS-V or Escalade but that helps as well.

    Beyond that you pay for the convenience of being able to drive a CTS-V anytime you want, then swapping for an Escalade or XT5 when you want to take the family out for a trip.

    This is almost a wash in costs when compared to my Porsche. It becomes an outright deal if it saves on insurance.

    Now I’m wondering how well this would work for Chevy, Buick, GMC. Maybe they take away the concierge portion of this and make you swap vehicles at a pickup point or a participating dealership.

    I’m going to change my mind on this from it being a stupid idea to MAAAAAAAYBE a pretty damn good one for premium buyers. But still, I’m calling it a BIG MAAAAAAAAYBE.

    UPDATE – Jalopnik says the price includes the cost of insurance. I got a quote from USAA for $143 a month.

    $143mo – insurance
    $806mo – lease payment
    $263mo – down payment amortized over 36 months
    $41mo – Tires (assuming $1000 for a set replaced every 24months)

    $1256 – total a month.. maintenance not included

    I left out maintenance because I have no idea what it costs. On my Porsche, the 30Kmile service starts at $3000. It wouldn’t surprise me if a CTS-V was less but such a high performance vehicle could cost even more.

    IMO this is worth it if you drive the very high end Caddy’s like the V-series or the Escalade. The great thing is that this isn’t a contract deal so you can get out of it at any time. The downside is the monthly fee and a $500 sign up. Frankly anyone that can afford these cars isn’t going to whine over $500.

    Just imagine if they did this for Chevy. Drive a ‘Vette one day and a Silverado the next. I bet that would be priced down around ~$600-$700 a month.

    • Euphemism for Leasing

      If this were for MB or Porsche, then yes. Cadillac is just not up to the level of refinement of MB or Porsche.

  • And the bookbycadillac.com site only lets you sign-up for more information rather than providing more deails about the service. The fine print in the video says to see the site for full details and restrictions. All the people in the video are credited with being “members” so I assume Cadillac piloted this program. One of the people mentioned how it takes the hassles out of driving and included insurance in her list of hassles saved. So, once the details are revealed, we’ll know the relative value this program.

  • U8INIT

    I would consider this program for like a 6 month trial…

  • TheBelltower

    Hmmm, thinking about this. Wondering how I would be able to deduct mileage. I couldn’t really deduct depreciation, since there isn’t any like in a typical lease.

  • AstonMartin

    The new Book program by Cadillac is a complete win. With access to the premium collection of vehicles with no need to worry about insurance premiums, taxes, maintenance or mileage restrictions, and no long-term commitment – its a program I will consider when it reaches my market. I hope Cadillac adds a true sports car in the near future or GM allows access to the Chevrolet Corvette – either way, I like it.

  • SteersUright

    I love the idea of a program like this but Cadillac’s cars simply aren’t desirable enough to justify the price. Outside of the “V” models, I sure as hell have no interest to touch a CT6 or XT5 at $1500 per month and $10k down, no matter what the weather. At $1000/mo though and $5k down with all “V” cars and all Corvettes included, I’d take a pretty serious look at this as a fun option for a few years.

    • Status

      There is NOTHING on bookbycadillac.com that says $10,000 is required for a down payment, only a $500 registration fee and the $1,500 monthly subscription fee.